Friday, September 9, 2005|
Surprise!. I was recently asked what about the Internet in the last 10 years surprised me most, and what surprise I anticipate in the next 10 years.
In millions of homes around the world are little WiFi boxes that you can turn over, and each says underneath “Made by Linksys, a Cisco company. San Jose, USA.”
So the big surprise in the last 10 years is that you can go to almost any town in the developed world, walk around a bit, and find free fast connectivity to the rest of the world. I couldn’t possibly have guessed that.
And the surprise for 2015? There will be the same little WiFi-like boxes in millions of homes and businesses. Ten times faster, ten times cheaper. But underneath they’ll say “Made by Cisco, a Huawei Technologies company. Shenzhen, China.” [Telepocalypse]6:28:28 AM  comment
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Murdoch buys into online lads' mags. Games and babes [The Register] 6:27:41 AM comment
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Early Returns: Nano Good, ROKR Bad.
There are only a few complaints thus far: The nano is not compatible with voice recording devices, there is no 'straight-to-nano' photo transfer capabilities, and the product name is all lowercase. I hate when they pull that crap.
iPod Nano Combines Beauty, Function [WSJ] 6:26:58 AM comment
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Although most people have had a mere three microseconds to test Apple's mana from heaven, and they are making snap judgments faster than you can say 'Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.' The one person who got to spend more than his fair share of time with either of the devices is the cookie monster himself, that great papa bear of gadgetry, Walt Mossberg. He dropped his nano, repeatedly, from the height of around three feet. (Most journalists don't even get to drop theirs from one foot. I wonder if he has to buy it now?) And, like everyone else, he loves the Nano. The concensus is that it is so small, yet so powerful. You would think that flash drives had never been invented and 
This will make it even easier for companies to create more iPod accessories than the one thousand that, literally, exist already. The iLoungers also noted that the nano's new stopwatch and lap timer work well—a discovery made while they were sprinting from the convention center yelling 'I got one! I got one!' with Apple corporate security in hot pursuit. 
From the day it was born, the ROKR was trouble. |
Smartphone, Dumb Strategy.
6:26:04 AM comment
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We all know that when it comes to the mobile phones that come stateside, it's the carriers who hold all the cards. So it's nice to see that Cingular is letting us have a cool phone (that of course, has already been out in Europe) right here in the US. An e-mail sent to developers included news that Cingular will be picking up the Nokia 9300 Smartphone—a candybar-style cell with handsfree speakerphone, Internet connectivity and an 80 MB built-in memory. In stores before end-of-year? It will take Vegas odds-makers to answer that one.|
Apple Unveils a New IPod and a Phone Music Player. Apple introduced a compact iPod called the nano and confirmed a widely reported digital music partnership with Motorola and Cingular. By JOHN MARKOFF. [NYT > Technology] 6:25:21 AM comment
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IPod Phone Isn't Perfect, but It's a Start. Questions about an iPod cellphone have been rife in nerd circles for months. So how is Apple's offering? [NYT > Technology] 6:24:37 AM comment
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Telstra Does 3G Soft Launch. The Age, 5 September 2005 Telstra will today become only the second telco in Australia to offer 3G mobile services, but the low-key launch reflects the changed expectations since Hutchison Telecom made a glitzy debut in 2003. Telstra's i-mode service - which has been available for six months on the GSM network - is already offering 211 sites, although not all of them will be available on the 3G service straight away. "The sheer variety and depth of services available gives Telstra a big head start from other operators that have a more limited scope of services," said tech research firm Ovum. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:23:17 AM comment
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Jupiter Japan to Become MVNO. Bloomberg, 7 September 2005 Shares of Jupiter Telecommunications Co. rose as much as 2.9 percent after a report that Japan's biggest cable television provider may begin its own cellular phone service using Vodafone Group Plc's Japanese network. Jupiter's stock rose 1.5 percent to 94,900 yen as of 9:58 a.m. in trading on the Jasdaq. The company may sign up with Vodafone K.K., the local unit of Newbury, England-based Vodafone, next year, said Jupiter President Tomoyuki Moriizumi in an interview with the the Yomiuri newspaper. Officials at Tokyo-based Jupiter were not available to comment on the report. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:19:14 AM comment
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New 3G Phones from Vodafone Japan. By Gail Nakada, 8 September 2005  Japan's lost souls and the musically minded are targets for two new W-CDMA 3G handsets from Vodafone Japan, the 903T and 803T, both by Toshiba. Scheduled for an October release, the 903T finally puts Vodafone on the real-time mobile GPS navigation map (rivals DoCoMo and KDDI have had network GPS phones for some time). Vodafone's "Live Navi" navigation portal goes the competition one better with the addition of GPS global roaming options in the UK, Hong Kong, Holland, Spain and Germany -- with more countries to follow. Of course, international roaming and Vodafone live! communication charges will apply, which might make it cheaper just to buy a guidebook. Here in Japan, the navi service will map out routes according to specialized needs -- like fewer stairs or covered access for when those typhoons hit. Vodafone's main partner in mapping is well-known navigation data supplier Zenrin, which handles most of the live walk-through navigation and panorama shots via a split screen to show users just what they should be seeing on their route. Other partners specialize in train and subway routing, area-based restaurant maps or shopping information, as well as an international travel info site. WWJ subscribers log in to access full review and larger images. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:18:11 AM comment
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Jazelle for New DoCoMo 3G Phones. WWJ Editors, 8 Sept. 2005 ARM has announced that their Jazelle technology will be deployed in a new line of FOMA handsets by NTT DoCoMo. Emerging applications such as mobile games and business tools place increased performance and power demands on Java technology-enabled handsets. Through ARM's partnership with Aplix Corporation, a global leader in deploying Java technology in mobile phones, ARM Jazelle technology is being adopted in the DoJa/Java platform for FOMA handsets, which is being jointly developed by Aplix and NTT DoCoMo. [Wireless Watch Japan] 6:17:36 AM comment
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Qualcomm's i-mode tactics - and DoCoMo's encouragement. On the face of it, i-Mode appears a strange route to market for establishing Qualcomm, and possibly BREW, in Europe. After all, the two are rivals as end-to-end technology environments and marketplaces for mobile content services. But the technologzy components of each need not be rivals. [i-mode Business Strategy] 6:15:36 AM comment
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JR & DoCoMo Co-Op for Mobile Wallets. East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (DoCoMo) announced that they have signed a basic agreement to discuss joint development and management of common infrastructure for JR East's Suica e-money and DoCoMo's upcoming Osaifu-Keitai credit card service, both based on FeliCa smart card technology. source : WWJ... [i-mode Business Strategy] 6:11:16 AM comment
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Will 3G be third time lucky for Telstra and mobile data?. In a story in The Australian newspaper reports that 3G "will be Telstra's third attempt at mobile data after the expensive failures of WAP in 1999-2000 and Loop in 2003, which are estimated to have cost Telstra about $100 million between them". [i-mode Business Strategy] 6:10:57 AM comment
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ITunes Coming to a Phone Near You. Apple's Steve Jobs shows off a new music-playing phone -- loaded with iTunes software and capable of storing about 100 songs -- as well as the pencil-thin iPod Nano, which will replace the iPod Mini. PLUS: Leander Kahney's take on the Nano on the Cult of Mac blog. [Wired News] 6:08:24 AM comment
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Global 3G Tops 50 Million. One of Bill Gates' favourite sayings is that we always overestimate progress in the next two years and underestimate it in the next 10. This has certainly proven true for the launch of 3G, which has only now just... [MobHappy] 6:03:24 AM comment
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Mobile phones scoring on sports biz. After Astrology, Sports have set the cash registers ringing for the telcos. The report puts the number handsets supporting Java (language in which most of the games are available) at 95.5 million in 2003 up from 32 million in 2002. [Mobile Pundit] 5:56:36 AM comment
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Desktops anyone?. “Will PCs become obsolete with the emergence of hi-tech mobile devices?” asks George Paul, executive vice-president of India’s leading PC vendor HCL Infosystems. He then goes on to claim that first-time buyers will prefer desktops over mobile devices. My belief is that the first computing device for most Indians and consumers in emerging markets will be the mobile phone. Affordability is not the only reason for lower penetration of PCs in India. Indians are highly value-conscious, paisa vasool types, so there has to be a compelling reason also i.e. desirability. Mobiles offer a straight forward no-brainer reason - you can stay in touch. There are other less visible factors like mobiles being battery operated, which eliminates the need of uninteruppted power supply. Also support issues are easier to handle since the telco call centre rep is one call away. And if the handset breaks down there are plenty of small time mobile servicing centers, which are becoming as common as neighbourhood “radio repair shacks". [Mobile Pundit]5:53:55 AM comment
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Mobiles not music to carrier profits?. After digital cameras, the mobile may be turning it’s sight towards iPod. The phone may well become the portable music-player for the masses, relegating the iPod to the hardcore music fan. After Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series W800i, Motorola has announced the launch of Rokr - an iTunes phone, the music store software from Apple, whose iPod player dominates the portable digital music market. Analysts expect Cingular Wireless, the biggest US mobile operator, to reveal plans to sell the new Motorola Rokr that comes with iTunes. But Cingular may not see much of a boost to its profits from selling this service.
Also Read: Visual Radio [Mobile Pundit]5:50:24 AM comment
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Indian Music Industry's Bitter Pill. Business Standard: All is not well with the Indian music industry. The relations between the singers and record companies have soured. Recently, the singers like Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik have formed an association - Singers' Association of India - to press for their demands with record companies. Anyways, Indian music industry is going through a crisis - piracy is the culprit. The story says: "This industry, which in the 1990s boasted of a turnover of Rs 1,150 crore, now stands abysmally low at Rs 450 crore." Another issue is that even in the digital age of ringtone downloads, the music industry - the original IP owners - gets paid peanuts. For instance, "the telecom companies are charging anywhere between Rs 7 and Rs 12 per ringtone download...of the Rs 7 for a single ringtone download, the lionâo[dot accent]s share âo[per thou] nearly 60 per cent âo[per thou] goes to the mobile service provider, while 25 per cent rests with the copyright owners (usually music companies which, in turn, are expected to pay the artistes) and 15 per cent is given to the government. But writers and composers gripe that they are barely paid 12 paise of this Rs 7, if at all. Savio Dâo[dot accent]Souza, secretary general, Indian Music Industry (IMI), makes a point, âo[ogonek]The business of ringtones contributes merely Rs 15 crore of the music industryâo[dot accent]s total revenue.âo?
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First Time Buyers In India Prefer PCs Compared To Mobile Devices. The Financial Express: This article is written by George Paul, executive vice-president, HCL Infosystems, which one of the leading PC manufacturers in India. So to that extent, there is an interest in arguing that PCs are a preferred buy compared to mobile devices by first time buyers. So, according to Paul, "Falling prices of desktops are fueling demand. Affordability of systems will ensure that the power of computing is within the reach of the masses, hence growing the domestic desktop computer market to a respectable market size. Price sensitive first-time buyers are more likely to go for desktop PCs rather than expensive mobile devices," he says. Some numbers: Indiaâo[dot accent]s PC penetration is as low as 14 PCs per 1,000 people, compared to other markets like China where PC penetration is 40 PCs per 1,000 people. There is a huge untapped market in India, which has not even experienced desktops. According to a study by Nasscom, until recently, the cost for a desktop PC in India was approximately 24 months of per capita income, the same figure for China in the same period was 4 months, and for the US it was 12 days. [ContentSutra] 5:47:45 AM comment
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Doordarshan and All India Radio To Go Digital, To Spend Rs 100 Crore On The Project. Screen Weekly: I had missed this story. India's information and broadcasting ministry will spend Rs 196 crore for the full digitalisation of 10 Doordarshan (national TV channel) studio centres and 61 All India Radio (AIR) stations. According to I&B minister S Jaipal Reddy, currently 9 DD studio centres and 79 radio centres are fully digitalised. âo[ogonek]During 2005-06 and 2006-07 ten DD studio centres are targeted to be fully digitalised and 22 partially digitalised at a cost of Rs 164 crore,âo? Reddy said. The government will spend Rs 31.91 crore for the complete digitalisation of 61 AIR radio centres, he said in Parliament in response to a question. [ContentSutra] 5:47:23 AM comment
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India Promising Wireless Market: Red Herring Asia Conference. Red Herring: At a Red Herring conference in Shanghai in China, there are good words being talked about India. The panelists, who included investors, a device maker, and a mobile game developer, were gung ho about the future of the wireless market. They said that "the death of laptops and the proliferation of new content, particularly blogging, will drive wireless market growth in Asia". [ContentSutra] 5:46:35 AM comment
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Indian Mobile Subscribers Cross 63 Million; August Addition 2.73 Million. Reuters India: India's mobile telephony market is booming as ever. The world's fastest growing major mobile market added 2.73 million new users in August, taking the total number of customers to 63.09 million. The Cellular Operators' Association of India, representing nine carriers offering mobile services based on the widely prevalent Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication, said 2.039 million customers signed up for its services in August. Overall, GSM carriers had 48.91 million customers at the end of August, up 4.35 percent over July. "We are very hopeful that new additions each month will make a new record," T.V. Ramachandran, director general of the Cellular Operators' Association, said. "Networks are being rolled out aggressively in unserved areas." Even a decade after their launch, wireless facilities cover only a quarter of the country. Local mobile call tariffs of as low as 2 U.S. cents a minute are driving cellular usage in India, where six people in 100 in the more than a billion-strong population use mobile services. India's top mobile services firm, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., added 624,209 GSM wireless users, its highest ever, taking its customer base to 13.41 million subscribers. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam, the second-ranked GSM player, had a mobile user base of 11.319 million customers. It added 595,130 subscribers in the past month. Hutchison Essar Telecom Ltd., the Indian wireless operation of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd., added 451,236 mobile users last month. The firm's user base stood at 9.296 million customers.
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Last update: 10/1/05; 11:45:26 AM .
